the refractory Such things as appertain to Salvation and to Faith were ordered by the Apostles by a Divine Inspiration but in the rest they did often use their own prudence as S. Paul intimates 1. Corinth 7.25 Nor are you ignorant so oft as examples are brought of Bishops placed by the Apostles in a higher degree above Presbyters what is commonly answered viz. that they had not that preeminence as Bishops but as Evangelists of whose superiority above Pastors somewhat you may have in S. Chrysostom on the IV. to the Ephesians Which reply of what strength it is I had rather stand to your iudgment then any mans Indeed S. Ambrose on that same place makes Evangelists inferior to Bishops and without Seas Yet however you shall call Titus Timothy and S. Mark whether Bishops or Evangelists it is clear they had Bishops their successors and heirs of their preeminence You determine therfore that our Churches do offend against the Divine Right yet so as you exclude them not from hope of salvation but do think that in our Church Government men may attain to Salvation for this you brought in in your Second Letter that you might deal the kindlier with us But in your larger you liken us in this point to Aerius who you say was deservedly upon this ground by the Antients put in the black Book of Hereticks Herein Great Sir I appeal to your equity Think with your self what streits you drive me to For if I should have spoke as you conceive it I could not but necessarily accuse our Church of Heresie and so doing be forced {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} to be packing to leave my station here and to provide for my self as I could Nor could I say that the Primacy of Bishops is by Divine Right but I should brand our Churches which have spilt so much blood for Christ with Heresie For questionless to be obstinately set against such things as are of Divine Right and peremptorily to gainsay what God commands is downright Heresie whether it concern Faith or Discipline Besides that I should have overthrown that Principle wherwith cheifly our Religion defends her self against Popery viz. That what things are by Divine Right are sufficiently and evidently contein'd in the Holy Scriptures I hear what you will reply That it had been safer and better for me to have been silent in these points then itch to be writing so unseasonably Because therby it comes to pass that I must necessarily offend our own Church or your nay haply both And to tell you truth I had rather have been silent for very unwillingly I sett my mind to write nor did I write but upon command Arnoldus the Iesuite the Kings Confessor publikely and in the pulpit before His Majestie inveigh'd against the Confession of our Church and further in a pestilent book revil'd it wherin he mightily insults over us in this question and odiously seeks to overthrow our Churches Government This book coming to be sold all over France through the high ways and streets at the voice of a Cryer did greatly scandalize many Nay before this the Pulpits the Markets the Court the Streets and the very Barbers shops rang with this question This is the field wherin wanton witts sport themselves daily How earnestly my Book was look'd for which should stop that insolency it doth thence appear that in Four months space it was nine times printed I could not therfore shun this task Nor was it possible to write exactly of that Argument but I must begin with the signification of the words Bishop and Presbyter and treat of the Original of the Office But here I took occasion to speak honorably of the Bishops of England I deriv'd the dignity of Bishops from the very infancy of the Church I condemn'd Aerius I said that S. Iames himself was Bishop of Hierusalem from whom in a long course the succession of Bishops of that City is deduced Only this one thing was wanting viz. that I did not say that our Church was heretical and did trample the Divine Right under her feet which indeed I neither could nor ought to do yea had I done it you your self would have noted that want of prudence in me This may serve for the Three chief points To which you further add this {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} or corollary namely your iudgment touching the Title of my book which I wrote for France Of the Calling of Pastors These words you say are novell and never used by any of the Antients in this sense I acknowledg indeed that the word Calling is unusual among the Antients nor taken in that sense But we Frenchmen speak otherwise for as many as have wrote of that Argument either Our or Papists use this word which with us signifies somewhat more then Ordination for it is taken for the Office it self If I had wrote in Latin I should have given this Title of the Office and Ordination of Pastors Neither would you have all Presbyters and Ministers of the Word of God to be called by the name of Pastors For this word you say belongs only to Bishops and that the Antients spake so If this be true Worthy Sir the Churches in France Germany Lowcountrys and Helvetia are flocks without a Pastor But S. Paul Acts the xx commandeth the Presbyters of Ephesus pascere i. e. to be Pastors of the Church v. 17. 28. And S. Peter in his 1. Epist. 5. ch. 1. 2. v. The Presbyters who are among you I exhort Pascite feed the flock of God which is among you taking the over-sight therof not by constraint but willingly not for filthy lucre which exhortation to diligence and shunning filthy lucre no doubt belongs also to the inferior Presbyters Now to think that they ought not be called Pastors whom God commands Pascere to feed the flock I cannot persuade my self But if the Word of God be Pabulum the food of Souls I see not why he should not be call'd a Pastor who doth administer this food S. Paul in the fourth to the Ephesians verse 11. makes an enumeration of Ecclesiastical Offices God gave some Apostles some Prophets some Evangelists some Pastors and Teachers If Presbyters who labour in the Word whom we Frenchmen call Ministers be not understood under the name of Pastors I see not what place they can have in this enumeration of the Apostle S. Augustine in his 59. Epistle saith that Pastors and Doctors here are the same The same thinketh S. Hierom upon this place of S. Paul Vincentius Lirinensis expounding this place maketh no mention of Pastors but comprehends them vnder Doctors whom he calls Treatisers who certainly were a different thing from Bishops But that Bishops only are Doctors I never yet read anywhere S. Ambrose is so far from thinking the name of Pastors to belong only to Bishops that he even calls Readers Pastors Readers saith he are and may be Pastors who fatten the souls of
their Auditors with Reading The term Pastor is usual among the Prophets Prophet Isaiah 56. 11. Prophet Ieremiah 10. 21. and 22. 22. and 23. 1. 2. Prophet Ezechiel 34. 2. and Prophet Zachariah 10. 3. Which places whosoever shall weigh in the even ballance of judgment he shall find that under the name of Pastors were reckon'd not only the cheif Priests or the heads of the Levites but all the Prophets and Levites upon whom the Office of teaching lay But the following matter and my earnest desire to satisfie you hath carried me beyond my bounds I have too too much abus'd your leasure Yet shall not this my pains be ill bestowed if you shall take notice hereby how much I esteem you how desirous I am of peace how glad I would be that all the Reformed Churches who are united by one Faith were also united by one and the same bond of Ecclesiastical Government I beseech you Sir accept in good part this my ingenuous liberty which truly shall never detract from that observance and honor which I shall ever profess before the world I ow unto you God preserve You and grant You a fresh and lively old age with the increase of all honor and happiness Farewell Dated Paris Your Honors most devoted in all observance Peter Moulin The Bishops Answer to the Third Epistle I Never could learn this trick of sawing or which is all one of tossing replys No not when my years were fitter for it But now old age which of it self is a diseas and yet never cometh without diseases attending it plucks me by the ear and bids me get me out of this cockpit and rank my self with them whose whole business is Prayer Nevertheless because in this skirmishing it hath happen'd to us both alike viz that we have not reach'd one anothers meaning I shall not unwillingly more fully and plainly expound my mind to you as you did your to me That which I first meet withall is but a slight matter for I do not understand at all how I was any whit more mov'd then ordinary Neither do I remember ought of yours that mov'd me more then ordinary nay that mov'd me at all but only that you said that some passages of yours had griev'd the Kings soul That word greiv'd greiv'd me somwhat I confess and mov'd me more then ordinary Besides nothing that I remember His Majestie had made three dashes upon your Book Touching them you would know of me what my mind was what I thought I answered as was truth where the King had made them they ought to be made The first place noted by the King was that concerning the passivity of the words as you speak I said it was justly noted Here you did not reach my meaning for you take it for all one as if I had said that you therby did tacitly insinuate I know not what But that came not into my thoughts I did not say what you did therby insinuate but what others would snatch at from thence For questionless snatch at they will as if you did insinuate though you did not as men are and stand affected I for my part do not deny that those words are taken for one and the same and so far you are right This I deny that those things which are right may all of them safely by any man at any time be committed to writing For you must consider not so much what you might mean there as what others would snatch from thence Our writings must be regulated by that of the Apostle Not what is lawfull but what is expedient See you whether this controversie be seasonable at this time and whether it were advisedly done by you and whether it be not expedient {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} to cut off occasions from them who earnestly snatch at all occasions of setting novelties afoot Perhaps I fear what is safe enough but I fear though lest an occasion being taken from hence those stirrs unhappily break out again which seemed wholy to be made up among us Nor was I ever of that opinion I never wrote it that afterward it was otherwise done That was not done otherwise afterward which was done by the Apostles themselves It is S. Chrysostoms were there many Bishops in one City by no means It is S. Hieroms For in one City there could not be many Bishops It is Theodorets It could not be that there should be many Pastors in one City Of what time are these to be understood When were there not When could there not be those many Pastors in one City What when S. Chrysostom S. Hierom Theodoret lived doubtless when the Apostle wrote that to the Philippians I could not possibly say then that that was done afterward which they said was done even when the Apostle lived and wrote I said that the remedy was there applyed by the Fathers You say that the same was applyed by you Applyed I grant but truly neither the same nor in the same place For 1. their {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} their preventive caution was premised before they spake Your {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} yours is but a playster layd on after the wound is made 2. What you say by way of disjunction viz. either immediatly after the time of the Apostles or even in their time that would not they have said so but as truth was without any disjunction without the former part That it was done in the very time of the Apostles and by themselves 3. Then no where do they say that any constitution was made about it Nor do I think you will ever read of any such {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} or constitution in any History We read indeed in the Acts that the Order of Deacons was constituted by them of Presbyters of Bishops there was no constitution for Bishops were formerly instituted by Christ in the Apostles and Presbyters in the Seventy Two 4. Nor only that any was called Bishop but that he was a Bishop For there were no Titular Bishops then they had their Name from their Office they were called what they were they were what they were called 5. Nor that should be only with preeminence but that should be invested with power power I say of Imposition of hands of commanding of receiving informations of reproving 6. Nor only to take away Confusion which is contrary to Order but also to take away Schism which is contrary to Vnity Nor for these two only but also for all other ends for which we said that power was given You see that the Fathers had another gates remedy for this disease and that those speeches of yours It was constituted That should be called should have the preeminence are too narrow and I add by your leave too weak and dilute nor the same with those which are the ingredients of that medicine which the Fathers made But yet I have a mind here to put the question If Confusion
Of Episcopacy THREE EPISTLES OF PETER MOULIN Doctor and Professor of Divinity Answered By the Right Reverend Father in God Lancelot Andrews Late Lord Bishop of Winchester Translated for the benefit of the Publike S. Clemens in Epist. ad Corinth 1. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Our Apostles understood by our Lord Iesus Christ that there would be contention about the name of Episcopacy Printed in the Yeer 1647. To the most Reverend Prelate the Lord Bishop of Winchester Peter Moulin wisheth all health and happiness THat Honorable man your Predecessor was taken hence not without great damage both to the Church and Common-wealth The King lost a most wise Counseller and the Church a faithfull Pastor but I a Patron and a friend who though he was most carefull and desirous of my good yet oblig'd me more by his Virtues then his benefits I have his Letters by me which he wrote to me when he was sick and his recovery was almost desperate the very sight wherof doth exceedingly afflict me But yet my grief was not a little eas'd when I heard that you succeeded in his room whose learning I long since admir'd and of whose good affection I had great experience when I was with you Indeed his most judicious Majestie did not stick long upon his choice You were even then design'd his Successor in the judgment of all who knew the wisdome of the King May it I beseech God prove happy and fortunate to your self to the Church and Kingdom May He grant you with increase of Honor increase of Virtue and a fresh and lively old age That his most Gracious Majestie may long enjoy you for his Counseller and the Church daily reap more and more fruits of your industry and vigilance I wrote a Book touching the Calling of Pastors wherin some passages greiv'd the soul of your most wise King as if they were averse to the Office of Episcopacy But indeed on the other side our Countrymen complain not a little that I vndertook the cause of Bishops and condemnd Aerius who in a matter anciently and universally receivd durst oppose himself against the Practise of the Catholik Church And they take it in ill part that I said that it was generally receivd in the Church even from the first successors of the Apostles that among the Presbyters of a City some one should have the preeminence and be call'd the Bishop But though there be many things in my Book which the King set a dash of his dislike upon which as all things els he observed wisely and with an incredible sharpness of wit yet Three things there are which specially offend Him The First is that I said that the Names of Bishop and Presbyter are promiscuously taken in the New Testament for one and the same The Second that I affirm'd that there is but one and the same Order of Presbyter and Bishop The Third and that the greatest is that I think the {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} the Priority or Superiority of Bishops not to be of Divine Right nor a point of Faith but to be a thing wherein the Primitive Church vsed her liberty and prudence when she judged the Preeminence of One to be fitter for the mantaining of Order and conserving of Peace and that Vnity may well be kept whole and intire between Churches though they differ upon that point I confess these things were wrote by me which lest they be drawn to a wrong sense or be taken in the worser part take I pray breifly my meaning in them I said indeed that the Names of Bishop and Presbyter were taken for all one in the New Testament But I thought not that the Dignity of the Bishop was less'ned thereby since I spake only of the Name not of the Office only and I have beside clear places of Scripture the consent not only of Hierom the Presbyter but also of the most famous Bishops of the Ancient Church Chrysostom Ambrose Theodoret who took it not as a wrong to them or that any thing was abated of their honor if it were beleeved that the Names of Bishop and Presbyter were at first used in the same sense That the Order indeed of Bishop and Presbyter was one and the same that I said For so did the Ancient Church ever think and the Church of Rome thinks so to this day although there be in that Church an incredible difference betwixt the pomp of the Bishops and the meaness of the Priests Thence it is that in the Roman Pontifical there is set down the Consecration of Bishops but not the Ordination of them Indeed Order is one thing a Degree another for men of one and the same Order may differ in Degree and Dignity even as among Bishops the Degree of Archbishops is the more eminent Howbeit that this Episcopal Degree and Prerogative is by Ecclesiastical not by Divine Right I confess it was said by me For beside that to speak otherwise then I thought had not been the part of an vpright honest man you according to your wonted goodness will easily judg that a French man living vnder the Polity of the French Church could not speak otherwise but he must incur the censure of our Synods and vnder the danger {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} of degrading be forced to a recantation For to think that our Churches do err in points of Faith and in that which is of Divine Right were questionles to brand them with the note of Heresy and to shake the conscience of many weak ones Truly I came very vnwillingly to the writing of this Book but our Church requiring it and lately enforcing me for to stop the insolency of our Adversaries who in this point insult over vs out of all temper and speak of vs as of so many doltish mushrums newly sprung out of the earth and as of a company of base fellows who by force and tumult had got the Pulpit But howsoever I think I have kept such a temper that in defending our own I have not struck at your government nor by immoderate affection to a part have inclined more then was meet to either side Nor did I ever mention the Bishops of England with out due honor These things I thought fit to write to you Great Sir by whom I chiefly desire my papers may be approved I had sent my Book to you before now but that I was told by divers you vnderstood not French Now I send it because since you enjoy a more frequent and neerer presence of His Majestie I doubt not but He may have some speech with you about it and use you as an umpire in the cause And I shal most willingly stand to your iudgment well knowing that the most learned are ever the most can did and hoping that you wil not lauce too deep whatever may be salved with a fair interpretation So think of me as of a man with whom the Authority of Antiquity shal be
ever in great esteem and who shall think my self sufficiently arm'd against al opposite judgments if you shal not vtterly disapprove what I have writ God preserve you Great Prelate Farewell Paris Nones of Sept. 1618. Your Honors most devoted Peter Moulin The Bishops Answer I Had wrote these in the begining of March and was about to send them presently when lo the indisposition of the King in point of health made me lay them by and hindred my sending of them This sickness contracted first by grief for the death of his most dear Consort our most Gracious Queen and the neglect of all care of his body upon that greif ended at last in a diseas a diseas indeed so intricat and doubtfull that the Physitians themselves were at a stand what the event would be Wherby I forgat that I wrote and so omitted to send to you For all I had to do was to fall to my prayers with many moe who were sore perplexed as then in jeopardy for a most Gracious King But God lookd upon us and restord Him to us in Him us to our selves And now being returnd to my self I return to you what I confess I have bin too long indebted to you in so that as a bad debtor I was fain to be calld vpon by Monsieur Beaulieu in your name You will accept of this my too just excuse kindly as you are wont and promise your self from me what good offices one friend can do another Now concerning your Book You write that some passages therin greivd the Kings Soul And no wonder For his soul is tender and very sensible of any thing in that kind that bites or stings For out of His Piety to God He makes it not the least of His cares to tender the Peace and Order of His Church here And therfore in His great wisdom He presently discernd whether these Three points tended I. The name of Bishop is not distinct from that of Presbyter II. The Order is not distinct that is not the Thing it self III. And so the whole matter is not any thing of Divine Right What could they who lately made all the stirrs among us mutter more possibly Then that 1. the Name is taken confusedly that 2. the Thing is not distinct 3. Finally that it is a Human invention being setled by man may be unsetled and so stands or falls at the pleasure of the Commonwealth These Dictats are too well known to the King He hath been long usd to them They have long since on all hands been rounded in His ears He knows that there are still among us such as will from your writings presently take a new occasion perhaps not to pluck up this Order of ours that for so many ages hath taken root but surely to defame and calumniat it And this so much the rather because at one and the same time not by agreement I beleeve but yet as though vpon a compact lo one Bucer a fellow not hurt nor medled with by any in a very unseasonable time set forth a Book in Latin as it were of the same argument What King that studies the Peace not only of His own Church but which He desireth and would purchase at a dear rate even of the whole Christian world would not these things trouble Wherfore if the King set a dash of dislike upon those passages take it not ill I dare say He had rather set many asterisks of commendation then one dash of dislike specially upon what is your This surely is the Kings mind and is as it ought to be the mind and sense of vs all Wherin I appeal to your own equity You were for manteining of Your Churches Government and the repressing of your adversaries insolency should you not do it you should incurr the censure of your Synod and be forced either to recant or fear to be degraded In this We pardon you and demand the like pardon from you that it may be lawfull for us also to defend our Government as becometh upright honest men For we likewise have froward adversaries and there are consciences too among us which we may not suffer to be shaken or undermind as though they liv'd under another form of Church Government then was from the begining even from the very times of the Apostles And we are ready if need be and occasion shall serve to make this good to the whole Church How I wish therfore that you had not so much as touchd upon our Church Government For who put you upon it You might have turnd your weapons against those enemys you speak of and never have jerkt at vs There 's no such complication of ours with yours but that you might easily have pass'd by ours with silence And A faithfull silence hath its sure reward Or if you were so set upon it that you must needs be intermedling with Ours how I wish you had first imparted your mind to the King and whilst the coast was cleer had seasonably taken His advice in that you had to say of His affairs for Ours He accounts His You your self know and indeed who knows not since He hath wrote so much so admirably that as He is most able in respect of his other endowments of Wit and Learning so also in respect of his acuteness and solidity of judgment he is equal to the best or rather goes before them No man living hath in our Churches affairs a clearer insight a readier dispatch then he He himself in any point but specially in what concerns his own Church could have answerd you best and have set you the bounds so far to go but not beyond Wherfore if hereafter you shall go about any thing in the like kind pray remember this my advice which proceeds from a very good will to you I knowing that the King is well affected to you that he hath deserved well of you nor will you deny it and I hope will for the future deserve better Concerning those Three points if you demand as you do what I think I shall give you here this ingenuous answer That the Names of Bishop and Presbyter are taken promiscuously in Holy Scriptures that at first there was not so great force in the Words I shal easily grant you Nor did his Majestie regard so much what you said as to what purpose as what others would catch from thence who both in other parts here among us too are not rightly affected to this our order that these things were spoke to this purpose as if the Names being promiscuous the Things themselves were so also For to what end is it of what concernment to speak of Words taken confusedly when the Things are distinct No man lightly carps at the Name but he that wisheth not very well to the Thing also 1. And yet nothing here hath befallen Bishops which hath not befallen those other Orders also For in those very places in those very Authors whom you name it is said in like manner